Practicalfishkeepingco.uk (PFK) added: "Doctors spent three hours removing the 15cm/6" Asian swamp eel (Monopterus albus). The fish was dead when they retrieved it. PFK covered this story at the time, when surgeon Jin Wang, who performed the operation, explained that the eel’s slippery body greatly facilitated its unwelcome entry.

"He added: "The diameter of the urethra in a man's penis is just a little narrower, but because eels are quite slippery, its body worked as a lubricant and so it got into the penis smoothly."

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WTF Is That??

WTF Is That??

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The eel treatment, and other more extreme forms of beauty treatment that lure people in with a gimmick-factor, have been highlighted by Wendy Nixon, a health and safety consultant, who last week told a conference hosted by the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health (CIEH), the body which represents health inspectors, that there were problems with the procedure.